Street Art Dealer: Spray it, sell it

This article was taken from the April issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online

Street artists tend not to be keen on galleries, which makes it hard for them to monetise their work.

Leon (we can't disclose his full name), a 42-year-old graffer and director of international collective c6.org, set up Street Art Dealer through Bristol's Media Sandbox development programme as an alternative way to bring work to market.

The scheme provides artists with QR codes to paste up next to their work. If a member of the public takes a picture of the tag with their camera phone, it connects them to a site where they can buy prints of the work and learn about its creator.

The project trialled in Plymouth and Bristol with a group of artists including Turner Prize shortlistee Tomoko Takahashi. Now c6.org is opening up Street Art Dealer to any artist who wants to take part. The above work, by Dotmasters, will be sold through the system in March (location TBC).

Leon denies that it encourages illegal graffiti. "We recommend you liaise with your council and community," he says carefully. "You might say to a shopkeeper, 'That wall keeps getting tagged, I want to turn it into a point of sale. Perhaps I'll cut you in for two per cent of the profit?'"